AS one of Australia's biggest acts, The Cat Empire have played some pretty big gigs.

But even they were surprised by their recent appearance at the televised opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

"It was pretty epic," reckons bass player Ryan Monro. "The MCG stadium holds about 110,000 people with all the new stands they've recently built, so it was a pretty amazing sight to look out at when we came on stage.

"We liked the idea of representing part of Melbourne's music scene in the opening ceremony, and I like to think we made the usually boring 'countries walking out' bit a little more interesting."

Calling on the multicultural sounds of Melbourne's suburbs, The Cat Empire combine many different elements.

"Lately I've been saying we're a six-piece band with no guitars," says Ryan when trying to describe the band's unique sound. "It's something you don't see too often. But I guess the main influences on the sound have been jazz, reggae, hip hop, funk...it's pretty easy to just list those when describing the band."

And while all those influences are certainly present in their latest self-titled album there's also a very noticeable Latin twist due to the fact that they recorded it in Cuba.

"It was good to be that isolated while in the studio, and Cuba is about as isolated as you can get these days. It's one of the few countries without McDonalds or Starbucks or even any advertising.

"There wasn't even much Coca Cola on the ground! It feels like this island that doesn't know about the rest of the world. But so much amazing music has come from Cuba and it's a place we'd always wanted to go."

And it was an album that was very much shaped by the location.

"Yes, you can hear the food poisoning and the rum," Ryan jokes. "But seriously, we wouldn't have made an album that turned out like that anywhere else. We also met a few amazing local musicians and got them to play some parts on the album too."

* The Car Empire play the Birmingham Carling Academy on Tuesday, August 8. For tickets call 0870 771 2000.